Timeline

(6500 BC) Neolithic period: farming began (3000 BC) Bronze Age: walled citadels built (2800 BC) Domed tombs built in Crete (1200 BC) Trojan War began (1184 BC) City of Troy fell to Greeks (1130 BC) Use of iron for weapons and tools began (800 BC) City-states of Athens, Thebes, Megara, Corinth, Sparta established; Greeks adopted Phoenician alphabet (776 BC) First Olympic Games held at Olympia (757 BC) First Messenian war began (754 BC) Polydorus became King of Sparta (738 BC) Messenian war ended (734 BC) Polydorus sent colonists to Italy (685 BC) Second Messenian war began (670 BC) First Greek coins minted (665 BC) Second Messenian war ended (657 BC) Byzantium founded (595-586 BC) Sacred War for control of Delphi (594 BC) Athenian statesman Solon appointed ruler in Athens; reformed Dracon's law (546 BC) Persians invaded, conquered Greek territories in Asia Minor (528 BC) Hippias succeeded Pisistratus in Athens (479 BC) Persian Wars come to an end (460-446 BC) First Peloponnesian War occurred (450 BC) First bank founded in Athens (431-404 BC) Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens occurred (30 BC) Romans conquered all of Greece (269 AD) Goths raided islands in Aegean Sea (393 AD) Theodosius stopped Olympic Games (395 AD) Roman Empire took control of Aegean Islands (515 AD) Eathquake destroyed half the cities in eastern Mediterranean including Rhodes; destroyed statue of Colossus (654 AD) Arabs occupied Rhodes; broke up remains of Colossus and sold bronze for scrap (1453) Constantinople fell to Turks (1566) Ottoman Turks gained control Aegean Islands (1626) Famine in Crete killed one-fifth population (1669) Crete fell to Ottoman Turks (1797) French began rule of Ionian Islands (1821) Uprising occurred; Greece declared national independence (1832) Bavarian prince Otto, named King of Greece (1834) Athens became capital of Greece (1991-1914) Greece sided with Germany in Balkan Wars (1944) Greek and British forces combined, forced Nazi withdrawal; Georgios Papandreou became prime minister; protest demonstration killed 28 (1946-47) Royalist party won elections; restored monarchy; civil war began (1947) Dodacanese incorporated into Greek state (2004) Conservative New Democracy party won general election; bombs exploded outside Athens police station; Athens hosted summer Olympic Games (2005) Trade unions held strikes; Parliament ratified EU constitution; airline jet crashed - killed 121 people (2006) Public sector workers held strike; earthquake struck in southern Greece; Greek and Turkish fighter planes collided, crashed into Aegean; Greece wins basketball FIBA World Championship
 * Greece Timeline﻿ **
 * (2200 BC)** Indo-Europeans invaded, founded Mycenae
 * (1730 BC)** Earthquake struck Crete, palace destroyed
 * (1700 - 1600 BC)** Minoans arrived at Rhodes, Kasos and Telos; Carians arrived at Kos and Kalymnos
 * (1500 BC)** Santorini volcano erupted
 * (1470 BC)** Mycanae established as cultural center
 * (1100 BC)** Mycanae destroyed by Dorian invaders
 * (1000 BC)** Greeks began colonization Ionian coast
 * (950 BC)** Greeks founded Miletus in Ionia
 * (750 BC)** Greeks established colonies in Mediterranean and Black Sea area; Homer wrote Iliad
 * (725 BC)** Hesiod wrote Theogony
 * (719 BC)** Polydorus murdered by Polymarchus
 * (650 BC)** Terrace of Lions built at Dilos; Macedonian kingdom established
 * (621 BC)** Dracon established Athenian Code of Law
 * (583 BC)** Corinthian tyranny overthrown
 * (561 BC)** Pisistratus took control of Athens
 * (510 BC)** Spartans drove Hippias out of Athens; Athens joined Peloponesean League
 * (505 BC)** Cleisthenes founded democracy in Athens
 * (490 BC)** First Persian invasion of Greece occurred (Battle of Marathon; Persians defeated
 * (480 BC)** Persians defeated at Battle of Salamis
 * (438 BC)** Parthenon inaugurated
 * (430 BC)** Plague in Athens killed tens of thousands
 * (404 BC)** Athens lost second Peloponnesian War; Spartans ruled
 * (399 BC)** Socrates tried, condemned to death for corrupting youth
 * (395 BC)** Corinthian War occurred
 * (371 BC)** Athens, Thebes, Chios, Mtilene, Byzantium, Rhodes defeated Sparta
 * (344 BC)** Macedonia conquered Thessaly, Illyria and Epirus
 * (338 BC)** Phillip II of Macedonia defeated Athens and Thebes
 * (336 BC)** Philip II assassinated; succeeded by son Alexander
 * (331 BC)** Alexander the Great conquered Persia; destroyed Persepolis; Achaemenid dynasty ended
 * (323 BC)** Alexander dead at age 33
 * (307 BC)** Athens captured by Antigonos
 * (290 BC)** Colossus of Rhodes built
 * (197 BC)** Romans gained control over Macedonians
 * (149 BC)** Romans annexed Macedonia as a province
 * (89 BC)** Mithriades VI led revolt against Rome
 * (86 BC)** Romans defeated Mithriades; burned Athens
 * (324 AD)** Constantine the Great founded Byzantium
 * (1204)** First sack of Constantinople; Fourth Crusade
 * (1387)** Ionian Islands brought under Venetian rule
 * (1912)** Dodecanese Islands liberated from Turks; King Constantine defeated Turks in Macedonia
 * (1913)** Crete and Aegean Islands became part of Greece
 * (1917)** King Constantine abdicated first time
 * (1922)** Greek forces defeated in Asia Minor; Greeks who lived on Turkish side of Aegean flooded into Greece; King Constantine abdicated second time
 * (1924)** Greeks voted to abolish monarchy; country became republic; King George II exiled
 * (1927)** Air service began between Athens and islands
 * (1935)** Monarchy restored; King George returned
 * (1936)** General Metaxas appointed prime minister by King; established dictatorship
 * (1940)** Mussolini's forces attacked Greece
 * (1941)** Metaxas died; Germany conquered Greece; famine killed over 100,000; King George fled to Egypt
 * (1952)** Greece declared a parliamentary democracy by new constitution; joined NATO
 * (1960)** British rule of Cyprus ended; became Greek state
 * (1963)** Grigorios Lambrakis, left-wing deputy, murdered in Thessaloniki
 * (1967)** Group of army officers seized control; elections postponed; Col. George Papadopoulos became prime minister
 * (1973)** Monarchy abolished; Greece declared republic
 * (1974)** Turkish army invaded, occupied northern Cyprus
 * (1996)** Greece and Turkey dispute Aegean Islet
 * (1999)** Athens struck by earthquake, dozens killed, thousands homeless
 * (2000)** British diplomat, Brigadier Stephen Saunders, shot in Athens by left-wing group
 * (2002)** Euro replaced drachma; Greece and Turkey agreed to build gas pipeline through Turkey
 * (2003)** Demonstrations took place in Athens during EU summit meetings; Greek coast guard seized ship loaded with explosives; Athens court found leader and hitman of Greek terrorist group guilty, sentenced to prison